Palmer Township's electronic billboard ordinance was upheld Tuesday by a Northampton County judge, despite one family's complaint that it has ruined their quality of life.

Charles and Betsy Diefenderfer sued Palmer supervisors last year after a builder was permitted to erect a 24-hour-a-day illuminated billboard along Route 22 near their home on Hay Terrace.

The couple claimed that the zoning changes that permitted the sign were approved by supervisors in 2011 without being properly advertised, and should be declared null and void as a result.

The billboard by Lehigh Valley developer Abe Atiyeh has "deprived them of the quiet and peaceful enjoyment of their property" and "prevented them from sleeping and otherwise enjoying their home," their suit said.

But Judge Emil Giordano found that Palmer had given residents sufficient notice of the proposed changes before they were enacted. They were advertised in a newspaper as required and a copy of the ordinance was available for the public's review at the municipal building and on the township's website, Giordano said.

Giordano said the record reveals that the township conducted multiple public meetings on the ordinance and held those meetings only after providing formal notice of their time, location and subject matter.

In so doing, the township "not only substantially complied, but strictly complied" with the state's municipal planning code, he wrote in dismissing the Diefenderfers' challenge.